Clinton City leaders are looking to pull the welcome mat out from under convicted sex offenders. City Council members in the northern Davis County community are expected to vote tonight on a proposed ordinance that would make it a class C misdemeanor for convicted sex offenders to come within 100 feet of a city park or other city-owned facility where children may gather or play.

"If watching children is part of the process or provides an opportunity for someone to stalk a child, this will remove that temptation or that part of the equation," Councilman Paul Ray, who drafted the proposed law, said Monday.

Ray, who also is a GOP state representative, says he got the idea for the ordinance during a discussion last month with other leaders from around the country at an American Legislative Exchange conference. He sits on the ALE's criminal-justice task force.

Ray patterned his proposal after similar laws enacted recently in Iowa and Miami. The only exceptions to his law banning sex offenders from city property would be for individuals who have business at City Hall, the police station or fire station.

Thus far, Ray said, the feedback to his proposal has been overwhelmingly positive. "It's never lost a vote that I know of," he said. "I've bounced it off at least 100 Clinton residents and everyone thinks it's a good idea."

Critics say such laws are ineffective and may infringe on the constitutional rights of individuals who have already paid their debt to society.

"Laws like this are popular, but they tend to punish people retroactively and may be detrimental to an individual who is trying to reconnect with his family or community," said Dani Eyer, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Utah chapter.

Eyer said the ACLU has no plans to get involved in the Clinton City proposal unless a complaint is received.

Laws such as the one Ray is proposing tend to give people a false sense of security, Eyer said.

"Less than 7 percent of all child sexual-abuse victims were assaulted by strangers," Eyer said, citing a 2003 U.S. Bureau of Justice report. "The majority of them are more likely to be victimized by a parent, stepparent or someone else they know."

Ray said a perusal of the state's online registry of sex offenders convinced him this ordinance is the right thing to do.

"There are over 80 sex offenders in the Clinton ZIP code alone," he said. "This could be a parole violation that could send someone back to prison, but we are not going to provide them with the opportunity to snatch a child from a city park."

lorib@sltrib.com